JOINT STATEMENT IN SOLIDARITY OF ANTI-POSCO STRUGGLE ODISHA FOR ENDORSEMENT

News reports say that the Orissa government is once again planning an
assault on the proposed POSCO project area. Apparently at least 14
platoons of police will attempt to attack the coastal side of the
villages. This comes after the people of Dhinkia and
Gobindpur heroically resisted police attacks for more than two months
in the heat of summer, drawing the attention of the entire country. It
also comes in the wake of a grossly illegal clearance to the project
from the Environment Ministry, in direct violation of the Forest Rights
Act, despite two of the Ministry’s own enquiry committees finding that
the grant of clearance would be a crime. Moreover, the Centre itself
now claims that projects of this kind will be subject, under its
proposed new law, to the consent of 80% of the local community.
Despite all this, the Orissa government is relaunching its criminal
offensive, and the Centre as usual is doing nothing to stop it or to
uphold the law. The sheer absurdity and injustice of the upcoming
attack is further shown by the fact that, for more than a year, POSCO
and the Orissa government have not even been able to renew their MoU on
the project. When there is no agreement on what the project should be,
what is the need to attack people and grab their land?

We condemn the imminent criminal attack on the peaceful people of the
POSCO project area. We stand with them in their struggle agianst this
destructive, unjust and illegal project.